Why is product feed optimization so important?

At the beginning, it is worth asking yourself the basic question why the care of the product feed is so high in the hierarchy of activities that we undertake when creating a PLA campaign. It is such an important factor for several reasons. First of all, in this type of campaign, we have no influence on what key phrases our ad will be displayed on. It is the Google Ads algorithm that decides when to show our product, based on the information contained in the product feed. Therefore, optimizing this file, for example by adding key phrases of interest to us in the title or description of the item, gives us at least an indirect influence on to whom and in what context our products will be published.

Secondly, a number of attributes can be added to each product, i.e. product features, such as, among others, size, color, material, gender (e.g. in the case of clothes) or pattern. In the Google Shopping tab, the user can filter the results based on exactly the same attributes. So the more fields describing the product are filled in, the greater the chance that it will also appear in filtered views. The third reason to optimize the feed is that Google Ads algorithms constantly determine its quality and reward products from those files that they consider to be of high quality in views.

High feed quality, in addition to influencing your impression position, can also help reduce CPC, the rate per click on your ad. If the feed is well structured, our product is more suited to the customer’s inquiry, thanks to which we burn less budget. This means that the campaign can achieve much better results, as it gives more clicks within the set budget and reaches a better selected audience.

What must be included in the product feed?

In the case of the product feed, some information is mandatory for the feed to be accepted by the system, and some is optional, and in addition, some options are required only in campaigns for selected countries or only in the case of specific product categories. Therefore, when creating a product campaign, it is best to check the feed requirements in our industry and in the country where we want to publish the advertisements. In simplified terms, however, it can be said that the information that must be included in the product feed includes:

– ID – unique identifier of the product. Ideally, it should be the same as in our warehouse identification.
– Title – the name of the product and the most important information about it. We will write a little further about what exactly it should look like.
– Description – in this field, describe the product in detail, using the keywords that are most relevant to you.
– Link – this should lead to the product page where you can make the purchase.
– Image link – address of the main product image, which will be available for indexing by Google.
– Availability – product status. It can have the value “in stock”, “unavailable”, “temporarily unavailable” or “presale” (in the case of the last two options, it is also obligatory to complete the attribute indicating the date of availability).
– Price – it must be consistent with the price on the store’s website and on the payment page.
– GTIN – Global Trade Item Number – GTIN is required only for products that have this manufacturer assigned number, but Google strongly recommends it be used for all products.

If the product feed includes the above-mentioned elements, it will be accepted by the advertising system, but it is not tantamount to high quality of the feed. These are only the basics and to get a high rating for the algorithm, you should also complete some of the attributes from the optional list. Before we get down to describing them, however, let’s figure out how to optimize this basic product data.

How to optimize your product feed titles?

The title is a very important element not only because it is one of the first pieces of information the user sees. It is also important because it is one of the main parameters that the algorithm takes into account when determining which keywords to display a given product on. Therefore, it is worth including not only information about the name of the product, but also, for example, its brand, color or size. We will repeat this information in other attributes, but if we also include it in the title, we increase the chance that the products will be displayed with the best queries in their case. The order in which the information is provided is also very important, which may be slightly different for different product categories. Google states that the best practices for title optimization for the most popular industries are:

– Clothes: Brand name + Gender + Product type + Product features (color, size, material, etc.),
– Food: Brand name + Product type + Product features (taste, number of pieces in a package, weight),
– Home & Garden: Brand Name + Product Type + Product Features + Model,
– Electronics: Brand Name + Product Features + Product Type + Model,
– Seasonal products: Opportunity + Product Type + Product Features.

Of course, these are not universal models that will work in all cases. For example, a brand name in a title will only attract an audience if it is recognizable and has a good reputation. So it’s best to experiment with names and test different options to choose the combination that works best for you.

It is also worth remembering that product titles may be displayed differently on different devices and thus the system may cut them off in some cases. We have 150 characters to use in the title field and it is good to use them, but make sure you have the most important information at the beginning of this section. In the Google Shopping tab, the titles are truncated after 70 characters, so it’s best to fit the most important data in this pool.

How to optimize the descriptions in the product feed?

In the case of the product description in the feed, we have 5,000 characters at our disposal. Of course, we don’t have to use all of them, but this field is a place for us to place many keywords. Admittedly, this will not guarantee that the product will show up for these words, but it does significantly increase the chances of it happening.

The description should not only be saturated with keywords, but also valuable for the user. Therefore, it is worth ensuring that it describes the product in detail and is of high quality. The description for each product should be unique, which increases the chance that the system will correctly select the one that best suits a given search query from the list of our products. For this field it is best to use a minimum of 500 characters, although of course the more useful information for the user, the better.

However, the question of where to get the information from which keywords will be most valuable for a given product remains. This is where the free Google Trends tool comes in handy. In it, we can enter terms that are associated with our product and check which of them are most frequently searched by users of the search engine. Thanks to this, we can include in the description those key phrases that have a chance to bring us the most impressions and clicks on the ad. For example, if Google Trends shows that “women’s black high heels” than “women’s black pumps” are more frequently searched for, it is worth using the first option in both the description and the title.

How to optimize product photos in a product feed?

An obligatory element of the feed is a link to a product photo, which the system can then use in advertisements. However, in order to obtain the best possible file quality, it is worth not to stop at one photo, but add a few to show the product more precisely. This can be done by using the Link to additional photo attribute. This attribute can be repeated 10 times for one product, which means we can add up to 10 additional photos. However, the standard is that for one product, we put 3-5 photos that show the product from different angles.

All photos should be of good quality, but their weight must not exceed 16 MB. Although in the official specification of the feed on the Google website we can find the information that the photos should have a minimum of 250 × 250 pixels for clothing and 100 × 100 pixels for other products, it is better to focus on photos with a higher resolution. The optimal size for product photos is 800 × 800 pixels. It’s a good idea to stick to these guidelines, because high-quality images improve your click-through rate and, as a result, can also increase your conversions.

Optional attributes that should be completed to optimize the product feed

As already mentioned, in addition to the basic data, it is also worth supplementing at least some of the attributes that are considered optional by the system. It is true that the file without them will be accepted and the ads will be displayed, but their effectiveness will not be as good as if we added additional information. Here are some attributes that should definitely be supplemented.

Brand
The Brand Attribute is most helpful when we sell products of well-known and frequently searched brands, but it is worth using in any case. However, this is an attribute that is often misspelled and can make your ads less effective, so pay close attention to it. A common mistake is to enter the name of your online store here, while the correct value is the name of the manufacturer of the product. So if, for example, we sell Nike sneakers in our store called XYZ, we should enter “Nike” in the brand attribute, not “XYZ”. Enter the name of your online store here only when our company produces the item from the offer. If the product does not have a brand or the brand is unknown, do not complete this attribute. It is a mistake to enter a value of the type “not applicable” or “missing” here.

Product group ID
This attribute is used to group products that come in different versions, such as sizes and colors. Thanks to this, they will not be displayed to users as separate products, but as variants of the same item, which will make it easier to get to know the offer and make a purchase decision. For all products to be grouped, we should add the same product group ID.

Size
This attribute is mandatory for clothes and shoes, but recommended for all products with different size variants. It is best to use the most popular sizes in the country where the campaign is to be used to determine this parameter. If a product is available in multiple sizes, it is important that you add the Product Group ID to all versions of the product. If the garment we sell has one size, we can enter the value “universal size” in the attribute.

Material
Material is one of the most important attributes for many products, including clothing, accessories, footwear and furniture. If the product has different material variants, each of them is added to the file separately and combined into one offer using the same product group identifier. It happens, however, that an item is made of several materials, e.g. a mixture of cotton and polyester. Then all the materials are added in one version in the Material attribute, separating them with the “/” sign without spaces, eg “cotton / polyester”.

mobiles link
If we have different URLs for traffic from computers and mobiles devices, we can also complete the mobiles link attribute. Thanks to this, we will make sure that users using smartphoness and tablets, after clicking the ad, will go to the subpages of our store optimized for these devices. This, in turn, will give them a better shopping experience for our brand. If the page URL is the same for both the desktop and mobiles versions, we don’t need to complete this attribute.

What else can be done to optimize the product feed?

The high level of the product feed is also influenced by including information about product types in it and filling in the field with Google categories. Thanks to the proper classification of the product, the system is better at positioning the offer and adjusting it to the needs of the recipients.

It is also worth ensuring that only up-to-date information about our product range appears in the product feed. For this purpose, it is best to set up automatic product feed updates in Google Merchant Center once a day. You can also fix more frequent updates (up to 4 times a day), but such frequent refreshing of the product feed is only necessary in individual cases. In addition, if we make changes to the website, e.g. we add new products to the offer or introduce a promotion, we can also force the feed update manually, without waiting for the automatic download of data. When setting automatic updates, it is a good idea to choose night hours so that refreshing the file does not interfere with the display of ads to recipients.

By using Design Thinking, we want to give free rein to our imagination, generate more or less real ideas and approach template solutions from a completely different angle. What is the practical side of applying this methodology? How can your company use it to create a new offer, generate a creative concept for a marketing campaign or new ideas for CSR activities? About it below!

Design Thinking – what is it?

Design Thinking is a method of solving problems and creating new solutions. It’s different design thinking. This methodology is based on understanding and indicating a given problem or need of the recipient, and then on looking for solutions, often in an unconventional and ambiguous way, and ending with implementing these ideas, as well as testing and improving them in practice.

This term was first defined in the USA in the 1960s. Design Thinking courses, workshops and trainings have appeared. This solution quickly gained its fans among marketing and social media specialists, employer branding, brand managers and project managers (in most areas where we have a special need for non-standard ideas and creative problem solving methods).

Design Thinking – for whom?

The Design Thinking process, despite the fact that it seems complicated at first glance, is in fact a very universal method, not reserved only for large companies and large design teams. Anyone can use it. It will be used in the areas of business, science and culture. It is so universal that it will work well both with smaller internal projects and creating a global advertising campaign. It’s not everything. The benefits of the Design Thinking approach can also benefit:

– UX designers, UI and graphic designers interested in getting a new approach to solving design problems and generating solutions that work;
– project managers looking for a holistic process that integrates all stakeholders to create user-centric solutions;
– developers interested in participating in the idea generation and design process;
– entrepreneurs who want to empathize with users and create products that fit the market and the lives of users;
– marketers who want to deeply understand customers;
– project / company stakeholders who want to get involved in the process of building a product or service;
– anyone who is interested in an innovative approach to problem solving both at work and in life.

Design Thinking is useful for solving complex problems that are poorly defined or unknown, by understanding the related human needs, re-formulating the problem in a user-centered manner, generating multiple ideas in brainstorming sessions, and adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing.

Design Thinking – examples when is it worth using?

Design Thinking can be used by anyone who is familiar with the purpose and the process of following this methodology at least to a small extent. This process may turn out to be more fruitful than standard processes aimed at creating a new service, product or approach in the company. When is it worth getting interested in Design Thinking and trying to follow its principles?

– creating a new service for customers or improving current services / products,
– creating a new advertising campaign (offline and online), including its strategy, necessary materials and techniques to reach recipients,
– improving strategies for acquiring new customers, partners or associates,
– improving the paths of our potential client,
– developing benefit packages for employees and forms of remuneration,
– designing processes in the company (employment, administration, procurement, technology or customer service, etc.)
– creating the concept of CSR activities,
– by developing an Employer Branding strategy,
– during rebranding activities, changes in the company’s visual identity,
– and more.

Design Thinking – How to start?

The Design Thinking process is divided into five stages: Empatization, Defining (problem), Ideation (looking for solutions), Prototyping, Testing. In practice, however, this process can be conducted in a more flexible and non-linear manner. For example, different groups on a project team may conduct more than one phase at a time, or designers may gather information and prototypes throughout the project to present their ideas and visualize solutions to problems at any given time.

Importantly, in Design Thinking, designers do not make early assessments of the quality of ideas. The goal is to minimize the fear of failure and maximize stakeholder input and participation in the ideation (brainstorming) and prototyping phase (more on this below). To start your adventure with Design Thinking, all you need to do is get to know the general assumptions of the process and divide your work into fixed stages.

Design Thinking stages

Design Thinking can be divided in several ways. The most common and used five step process is broken down as follows:

– Empathizing – collecting data and getting to know our recipient.
– Defining the problem – collecting all information from phase I and analyzing it in order to identify problems / conundrums of our recipient.
– Ideation – the stage of starting to generate ideas.
– Prototyping – designing solutions that will answer the problems identified and analyzed in the earlier stages.
– Testing – checking whether the generated ideas and created prototypes are effective and helpful.

Empathizing (Empathy)
The first part of the Design Thinking process is related to “empathizing” with the recipient’s needs. It is necessary to look at the problem from the viewer’s point of view and try to understand how he thinks, acts and feels. The first stage of Design Thinking is the moment of collecting data about the recipient. It may turn out that the way we look at a given problem differs from the way the potential recipient looks at it. Information analysis and gathering can take place through interaction and conversation, but also through observation and analysis of statistics. Popular measures used at this stage include: empathy maps, ethnographic interviews, user observations or surveys. Everything that is collected at this stage determines the next steps to some extent.

Defining (the problem)
The next stage of Design Thinking is to define, more specifically formulate a given problem. To do this, it is necessary to synthesize the information gathered at the empathy stage. Noticing the real needs of the recipient is difficult, the more so as we tend to close ourselves in our habits and mental frames. Defining or redefining the problem allows you to set a further direction of work. It is important to define the problem optimally, that is, not to close it too narrowly or too broadly. It is also worth getting away from habits or stereotypes, which can significantly affect the perception of problems and thus make it difficult for us to look at the problem objectively. Techniques helping to identify and define the problem we are working on include brainstorming, 5x why technique, problem mapping on the “how?” vs “what for?” etc. It is difficult to recommend one particular technique unequivocally. Each project team may have a different favorite or more proven method, according to which it works best. You can also experiment with techniques to spot differences in approaches and collect as many different results as possible.

Ideation – looking for solutions
Having a defined problem, in the next step of Design Thinking we look for its solutions. It should be a series of ideas, of which only at the end those considered the best will be used for the prototyping stage. The solution stage is a bit tricky. We often want to look for answers right away. However, without thorough working through the two previous stages, we can find wrong solutions, because the recipient’s needs are different than we originally assumed or the problem has a different basis than what we thought at the beginning. The primary tool at this stage is brainstorming. What is important at this stage is the approach of looking for many possibilities, instead of one specific result. Our goal should be to find unconventional solutions, and these will not always be appropriate and rational at first glance.

Prototyping
This is the time to create initial versions of our solutions and specify the materials, sources or necessary resources for their implementation. We are creating a prototype, i.e. our beta version, which, based on the results obtained at a later stage, i.e. testing, we will modify and refine accordingly. At this stage, it is worth informing our team that we do not want everything to be buttoned up to the last button and that the solutions are perfectly refined. Here we want to visualize what we have been working on. If it was a mobiles application – we can evalsuate the mock-ups sent by graphic designers. If this is a new service that we want to enrich our portfolio, we can subject it to final evalsuation by the team. What we have been working on in the last stages will soon see the light of day. Prototyping is the last opportunity to analyze the collected data, check whether the solution meets the needs and problems of our user and compare them with other solutions to make sure that we can test them.

Testing
This is the last stage of Design Thinking, although some sources mention the sixth stage: implementation. The results obtained during the testing phase are often used to redefine one or more problems based on the available data about users, their way of thinking, behavior, or how they use a given product or service. Even at this stage, changes and improvements are still made to exclude all shortcomings and obtain the most effective solution.

Design Thinking – tools that support your work!

Different tools can be useful at each stage. Depending on how we work: is it an online meeting during which we have the ability to communicate only via the messenger or all stakeholders are gathered together in the room.

Design Thinking tools for online work
In the online version, we will certainly need tools to help you collect all the ideas created during the brainstorming in one place. It can be, for example, RealtimeBoard, Milanote, MindMap, MindMeister, Coggle or the well-known regular Google Documents.

Design Thinking tools for offline work
In offline work, in addition to a desk and comfortable chairs, materials that will help you save or visualize the collected ideas, such as flipcharts, colored sticky notes or boards, will also be useful.

Tools in the prototyping and testing phases
In the prototyping phase, Figma or Adobe XD may be useful for us. However, at the testing stage, tools such as HotJar, SmartLook or A / B testing will be useful.

Summary

Design Thinking requires conscious behavior and openness in order to obtain a proven and rational solution, which may be an innovative product or service that meets the needs of our customers. It is a way to introduce an unconventional solution to our company and allow colleagues to propose their ideas to a wider group, without risking criticism or hasty evalsuation. Although it is a relatively simple method, the use of appropriate tools and moderating the group by a responsible person plays a key role in determining the success of the project.

– The intercepted domain may have a positive impact on the website positioning process.
– Before using the captured domain, check its history carefully.
– Capturing domains can be used not only to create the main website on them, but also, for example, a good background supporting the SEO of the main portals.

But let’s start by explaining what the domain itself is. This concept covers the most important element of a web address, containing the name of the website and the extension, or the ending. Let’s show it on a specific example. At https://www.paraphrase-online.com/, the domain name is part of paraphrase-online.com, where “paraphrase-online” is the page name and “.com” is the extension.

Buying domains – what is it about?

If we want to run any website on the Internet, we first have to buy a domain – this way we get a unique address where users will be able to find our content. Then such a domain should be paid regularly, because if we do not do it, it returns to the secondary market and someone else may take it. Buying unpaid and expired domains is called domain capturing.

Capturing domains – why do it?

The question automatically arises, why capture a domain, if you can buy a completely new one, on which there was no website before. This is a beneficial process for a variety of reasons. In some cases, you may find that your preferred domain name is already taken and the only way to get it is to wait for it to be released. You can also capture domains with a name very similar to ours, if the customers are wrong and find someone else’s site (e.g. when they differ only with the extension .com -> .co.uk, com.au, co.in, com.ph). Then, on the intercepted domain, we can create a permanent redirect to our website to avoid mistakes among users. Most often, however, domains are captured due to website positioning, i.e. SEO activities.

Captured domains and SEO

So the question remains why it is worth using “reclaimed” domains to position your website. Well, older domains already have a specific opinion in search engine algorithms. Web robots have already scanned a given domain, sometimes for many years, so by buying it, we can benefit from what someone else has achieved in the context of positioning. How? First of all, we can set up our own website on the captured domain. Then we don’t start building a reputation from scratch, but use the power that the previous site had. Of course, this works well in cases where the page on the expiring domain was thematically related to the one we intend to run.

Another way to use captured domains is to treat them as backend pages. If we set up a portal on an expired domain with topics similar to the one that dominated on the old website, there is a chance that traffic will remain at a similar level. Of course, it takes a lot of patience and effort to maintain it. We should create SEO-optimized content and regularly take care of the website so that its rating obtained by Google robots does not drop after interception. However, if we manage to keep the traffic going, we have an excellent backend. We can place an article on it with a link to our main page – the one we want to position – in this way, we provide the website with a valuable external link.

However, it is worth remembering that intercepted domains should be used carefully. A few years ago, they were used to place dozens or even hundreds of links, so that the positioned pages had the most extensive link profile. Today, such practices are no longer effective, and can even harm the website. Therefore, it is much more profitable to put one good quality link than to clutter the back pages with links, because then their value quickly becomes zero.

Capturing domains – is it worth it?

The intercepted domains can therefore pass some of their power to the positioned website. But do they always work so well? Unfortunately, it is not so rosy. First of all, the pages may not have had as much traffic as we thought. Therefore, before capturing a domain, it is worth checking it with SEO tools such as Semstorm, Senuto or Ahrefs. In this way, we can make sure that the domain is really well visible on the web, has satisfactory traffic and a good link profile that the search engine algorithms consider it valuable. Another thing that needs to be checked is the history of the domain in question. You can check it with the Wayback Machine website which saves and stores screenshots of websites from different time periods. Thanks to it, you can check what was on the site in the past.

One of the company’s potential customers found out about the importance of checking what a given site previously hid. It came to us with a big problem – despite many efforts and SEO activities, its website was practically invisible in the search results. After we checked the site, it turned out that it was set up on a domain that previously contained pornographic content. Therefore, the site was banned by the google algorithm, and although the new content was completely different, the domain’s opinion was so weak that the positioning did not work.

On the other hand, it is often possible to buy domains with a long and very good history in the secondary market for a song, thanks to which we can quickly strengthen our own site. So you can answer the question from the header: Capturing domains may be worthwhile, but you need to double-check it before you buy it.

How to capture domains?

Manually tracking domains that have been released or are about to expire is not feasible, so companies have sprung up to capture domains and resell them to other users. They have special scripts that search for such domains and buy them even in a fraction of a second after they are released. Therefore, it is through them that it is best to buy high-quality “used” domains. On the websites of such companies, you can view the list of available domains and a list of those that are expiring soon and will be available for sale.

How much does domain hijacking cost?

The domain interception service itself is not expensive – it usually costs several dozen dollars. However, the situation is different when we want to buy an already captured domain. These are put up at auctions and their price depends both on the attractiveness of the domain itself and the interest of users. Some addresses can be obtained for just one dollar, the price of others increases to several hundred or even several thousand dollars. The most attractive domains can cost even tens of thousands of dollars. So as in most cases – when asked about the price, you can answer “it depends”. First of all, whether anyone else is interested in taking over the domain. However, if we hunt for extremely tasty morsels, we must take into account that we will take part in a fierce auction.

With the spread of the Internet, many customers have moved to the network – including yours. That is why it is worth following the trends, becoming part of the Internet reality. Launching your own website is just the beginning, thanks to which you can reach a wide group of potential customers.

Online marketing, or what?

Online marketing is defined as all activities that support the sale of products / services and help in building the image via the Internet. At the same time, great emphasis is placed on building and maintaining a good brand-consumer relationship. All because the recipient in this case plays a much greater role compared to traditional marketing. The user is not a passive recipient of advertising messages, but has the opportunity to conduct a dialogue with the brand, express his own opinions, etc.

Online Marketing Activities

Online marketing is a very complex issue that involves many different activities. The possibility of implementing a strategy on several levels at the same time can bring much better and faster results.

Positioning
High positions in search results are desirable to increase brand awareness and generate a lot of traffic on the website. Search engine marketing helps in this, the main element of which is page positioning. Therefore, it is about developing such a strategy, thanks to which the company website will occupy the highest possible positions for specific keywords – those that are most often entered by users who will potentially be interested in purchasing a given product or service.

Google Ads advertising
Google Ads advertising is a way to appear, for example, in paid search results, i.e. those that appear above organic results. This means that the advertising message is displayed to the user after entering a specific phrase. This increases the chance of being clicked and redirected to the website. The advantage of Google Ads is its huge range and high efficiency. Therefore, this option is often used by companies that want immediate results.

Video marketing
It is an internet marketing strategy that aims primarily to build a brand image, strengthen awareness and promote specific products. Various forms of communication can be used in video marketing, e.g. video blogs, webinars, video guides, video reviews. Obviously, advertising on the YouTube platform plays a very important role in this case.

Content marketing
Content marketing should be understood as activities that oscillate around good-quality content. It is about providing useful texts in the form of a blog, sponsored articles, newsletters, e-books, reports, etc. The goals behind content marketing can be different – it can support seo, it can build an expert image or, on the contrary, for example, the image of the brand of a “buddy”. Correctly conducted and consistent activities in the area of content increase brand trust and understanding.

Email Marketing
In this case, e-mail becomes the communication tool. This form of marketing aims to build consumer loyalty, create a specific image of the company and build specific relationships with customers. One of the most frequently used forms of e-mail marketing is the newsletter. It reaches the audience by providing valuable content in an accessible form – so as to encourage clicking and going to the website. Through the newsletter, you can inform about current promotions, new products, industry events, etc. It is very important that the user has the opportunity to unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is based on the concept of the dissemination of information by users. Achieving this goal is only possible with valuable content – one that arouses interest. Then it is transferred in the form of shares, e.g. on profiles in social media.

Remarketing
Remarketing is defined as the activity of repeating the advertising message to users who visited specific products or visited the company’s website. This is done using the so-called cookies. In this form, there is great potential, because it allows you to more effectively reach potential customers who were interested in the offer in the past. At the same time, it makes it possible to stand out from the competition.

Blogosphere
An element of internet marketing is also the use of the blogosphere. It’s about working with bloggers who can test a given product / service and then write a review. Sometimes the cooperation concerns the placement of advertising banners or texts, etc.

mobiles Marketing
mobiles marketing takes advantage of the fact that most people use smartphoness and dedicated applications. It is through them that you can help potential customers make purchasing decisions while tracking their locations and preferences. What is it in practice? A person using a smartphones and having data transfer turned on may receive information about discounts, rebates or offers of the day when he passes by your store, restaurant, etc. This type of marketing is highly effective. In addition, the company appears to be modern and following the current trends.

Why is it worth implementing online marketing?

In the era of the widespread use of the Internet and the presence of potential customers on the web, it is worth becoming interested in online marketing. It is a tool that, if used correctly, will bring you a lot of benefits.

A chance to reach a larger group of potential customers
Do you have a small group of regular customers? While this is very good news, you can have many more. Thanks to internet marketing, you will reach new people potentially interested in your products / services. Internet marketing allows you to be where your potential customers are – even when your business is not directly related to online sales. Remember that many users – before making a purchase decision – look for information on the web. So it’s good to strengthen your image.

Attractive cost of the activities carried out
Internet marketing is a much more cost-effective option than many other forms of advertising. This is due to a simple fact: the company can choose from many tools – depending on the budget and the goal to be obtained. It is very often the case that the cost of internet marketing, SEO or social media is much lower compared to traditional marketing because we do not shoot at the barn, but only selected users – selected on the basis of the likelihood of their purchase.

Establishing interaction with customers
Modern customers want to know who is behind the advertising message, they want to have free contact with the company. Internet marketing creates such an opportunity, among others thanks to activities on social networks. Building positive relationships with consumers not only strengthens ties, but above all has a positive effect on trust and loyalty. Pleasant experiences from cooperation – not only at the time of making a purchase – influence purchasing decisions in the future.

Quick performance measurement
You don’t have to wait long to assess the effectiveness of your activities. In the case of internet marketing, you can track the effectiveness of the campaign on an ongoing basis using many useful tools. You can analyze conversions, sales, subscriptions and many other metrics. Thanks to this, you will know which channels to reach network users in order to turn them into real customers.

Reaching out with unobtrusive advertising
Nobody likes to be attacked by direct forms of advertising that clearly solicit a purchase. Internet marketing meets this goal by offering many different methods of reaching recipients – in a completely subtle and natural way. Effect? The chance of making a purchase is much greater. An example is running a blog as part of content marketing. By posting advisory articles with links to specific products / services that solve the problem, you increase the chance of making a purchase. Such an effect would not have been achieved if the advertisement had been placed “directly”.

Who is online marketing for?

A great advantage of internet marketing and at the same time an advantage over traditional marketing is the fact that it is a solution beneficial for every company – regardless of the profile, industry, size, etc.

The fact that marketing activities are carried out online does not mean that the company has to deal with online sales. All you need to do is have a corporate website through which potential customers will be able to reach you and contact you.

Online marketing is so universal that through appropriate activities it will be possible to reach potential customers interested in e.g. construction services, cleaning services, rental of tools, etc.

Where to start?

The starting point for online marketing activities is the website. It is the element that connects the company with potential customers. However, in order for it to be visible, you need to build a range. This is what internet marketing helps with: from positioning to cooperation with the blogosphere.

Remember, however, that you must conduct internet marketing in accordance with your strategy. Random actions will not bring the expected effectiveness. That is why it is worth using the support of specialists who will suggest solutions adequate to the expectations, needs and specificity of the industry.

Telephones conversation with HR (20-30 min)

If your experience and skills fit into the position profile, we will invite you to the first stage of recruitment. It is a 20-30 minute telephones conversation with HR. During this conversation, you will learn more about Paraphrase Online Group and the role you have applied for. We, in turn, will want to ask you about the details related to your career, competences and motivation to work in this position. We will also talk about your financial expectations and availability, so as to be sure that all conditions related to working with us are attractive to you.

Recruitment interview with team members (1h)

If our impressions after the first interview are positive, we will invite you to an hour-long interview with people from the team to which you submitted your application. This is a good opportunity for you to find out how it is to work in this department, so prepare your questions – we will be happy to answer them. We will want to ask questions that will allow us to better check your competences needed for this position. You can expect questions based on specific situations that you may encounter while working with us. This will allow us to assess even better if you will do well in this role and you will get a taste of what is waiting for you with us. At the beginning of the meeting, we will invite you to complete a short psychological test, it will take no more than 10 minutes.

Optional – a task (it will take you about 1 hour of your own time + 30 minutes for a meeting devoted to discussing the task)

For some recruitments, we also introduce a task to help us check your approach to solving specific problems. For us, it is one of the best ways to test competences and be sure that the best players will join our team. We will give you a time to complete the task – approx. 2-3 days, we will also make sure that you do not need to spend more than an hour of your own time on it. After you complete the task, we will arrange a short meeting to discuss it.

We often combine this stage with a recruitment interview, asking you to prepare a solution to a problem before the meeting.

Who will you meet?

The meeting is always attended by your new manager, i.e. the person with whom you will cooperate most closely. We want you to get to know each other better. It is also the best time to tell you more about the team you applied to and dispel any doubts.

What questions can you expect in the interview?

We ask about issues related to the role you applied for.

We use situational questions, i.e. questions that refer to your specific past experience, and additionally those that refer to hypothetical situations. They help us better understand how you operate and how you approach problem solving.

We use the STAR (situation, task, action, result) method for this. We need not only a description of the situation you faced, but most of all information on how you dealt with it. Be specific in answering such questions.

We also conduct a short test that will tell us more about your social competences and main personality traits. Thanks to this, we will check if we are on the same wavelength.

Finally, we will confirm the financial conditions and your availability.

Remember that the interview is also a time for you to ask any questions that may bother you in the context of your role and company.

How to prepare for a job interview?

It is always worth being prepared and this is one of the principles that we value at Paraphrase Online Group. You can prepare for the interview as follows:

Re-read the job advertisement and learn about the requirements. During the interview, we will focus on the areas that are crucial to us in the context of this position, and the announcement will give you a full picture of who we are looking for this particular role. So most of the answers are right there.

Check your CV and think about the skills that will make you suitable for this job. Think in terms of achievements, i.e. specific things that you have managed to improve, do better, those that have brought benefits to the company. Bring up a few situations that will confirm your competences. This is what we will ask you about.

Check out our website, blog and Facebook – do your homework and get to know the company you want to work for.

Paraphrase Online Group does not have a formal dress code, so everyone you meet at the interview will wear jeans and a T-shirt rather than a suit.

Feedback

After each stage of recruitment, we return to the candidates with feedback.

If it is positive, that’s great – we will contact you to confirm the terms of cooperation. The next step will be to sign a cooperation agreement. For this purpose, a person from our Administration Department will contact you.

However, if we decide that your experience and competences do not fit into the profile of the candidate we are looking for, you will receive information from us about the reasons for such a decision. We usually come back with feedback within a few days, but if the recruitment process has to be extended, we will let you know. If the answer does not come on time – be sure to remind us.

What should you bear in mind when talking online?

At the time the meeting is scheduled, click on the Google Meet link we sent you in the email and join the conversation. Below are some tips to keep in mind before meeting online.

– Familiarize yourself with Google Meet if you haven’t used this tool before.
– Check the quality of your internet connection.
– Check that your headphoness and microphones are working.
– Find a quiet place where you can talk (preferably with natural light shining directly on your face).

Offer

Everything was okay? Cool! Welcome to Paraphrase Online Group!

Website security – hacking, hacking uneven

Can my website be hacked? Is my website worth a hack? The truth is, there’s no place on the web that isn’t worth breaking into. Each domain and each page is a place that can be used – put links to various types of potency specifics, redirect to your – sham – domain or silently use our server for mailing and serve innocent internet users content intended definitely for adult recipients. The number of ways to use a hijacked website is limited only by the hackers’ creativity.

Taking over the website has various consequences, including problems with the proper functioning of the website and falling out of the Google index as a result of removing optimization. Hacking also increases the risk of your site being cut from the SERPs as a result of penalties for illegal content attacking. In addition, with each subsequent hack, the website loses its credibility in the eyes of the recipients, and they are more cautious about using the products and services offered. Lack of trust stems primarily from fear of your own data – it is user information that attracts hackers. In some cases, the acquisition of the site is also associated with considerable costs, which include, for example, income that could be achieved at the time when the site was closed. The costs of server cleanup and site restoration can also significantly affect your company’s budget. There are also legal consequences.

Who is most at risk?

Every website and every person using the Internet may fall victim to one of the many types of cyber attacks. Break-ins happen to large and well-secured companies:
– Adobe lost data in 2013 – username and password, full names, credit and debit card details – from 153 million accounts,
– LinkedIn lost email addresses and passwords of users in 2012 and 2016,
– Garmin lost access to a large part of its systems in 2020 and was forced to disable access to all services. In order to gain access to the data decryption key, the company decided to pay a ransom.

The scale of these break-ins is much greater than what the owners of small websites usually experience. However, this does not mean that you should ignore safety issues and not take appropriate steps in the name of the principle “prevention is better than cure”.

Among the systems that are exposed to hacking attacks, the popular CMSs are usually mentioned – WordPress and Joomla. The frequency of burglaries is influenced, among others, by the universality of installation of these solutions and … quite a frivolous approach to software updates and notifications related to security. In the case of WordPress, the source of attacks are also plugins that allow you to add new functionalities to your website. Some of the plugins are manufactured by third parties. Joomla’s vulnerability manifests itself during system configuration, which tends to generate errors when installing external extensions.

How to ensure the security of the website?

Below are 6 basic elements that allow you to increase the security of the website and reduce light-hearted behavior that may cause risk.

A. Password123, guess you!
Professional tools and the most complex security programs can fail with a lack of common sense and a lack of awareness of threats. I do not wish to imply that modern solutions should not be used – quite the contrary! My only suggestion is that we take a moment to reflect on our slogans. They are the ones that most often fall prey to internet thieves and cause havoc on our virtual estates. The most popular sins related to slogans include:

– their simplicity – i.e. qwerty, 12345, abc123 or passwords associated with the name of the website where we have an account This type of security breaks quickly – once they are quite intuitive, and two – they are one of those most often found on lists of data stolen from various websites,
– their universality – one password for everything? Simple solutions of this type work well … for a short while. Data leakage from one site may result in the loss of accounts also in other spaces.

This infamous group also includes the ugly habit of saving all passwords in one place – be it in a notebook or in an ordinary text file located in one of the folders on the disk. While the traditional notebook can be an attractive prey for a less IT-agile thief, the file can be of interest to anyone who knows how to use the trust of public network users (e.g. wifi in a restaurant) – hence the path to taking over all our Internet incarnations is short.

So how do you keep your passwords secure? One of the solutions that work both in private and in enterprises are applications that allow you to store passwords in a safe way, eg LastPass, 1Password, or their free equivalents – KeePass and BitWarden. These types of solutions work similarly to the above-criticized book – they allow you to store passwords in one place, but they are much more secure. These programs allow you to generate extremely complex passwords, which are then encrypted in various ways and stored in this form. The user only needs one password that allows him to access the application. Programs of this type run not only on computers but also on mobiles devices.

An effective way to limit the possibility of account takeover is also multi-stage verification. The introduction of this solution requires verification of logging in in several ways, e.g. using the application installed on the phones. The need to confirm the willingness to access the account allows for additional control and catching unauthorized login attempts.

Passwords should also be changed from time to time, especially in the case of rotation among company employees. After changing the people responsible for various areas of the Internet activity, it is good to refresh the accesses and ensure that only designated employees have access to the password-protected places.

B. Updates
Updating systems is another element of the set of basic activities that allow you to reduce the risk associated with unwanted activity on the website. This applies to all elements related to it – CMS, software on the server, as well as plugins and extensions. The task of the update – apart from developing the application and adding its new functionalities – is also to eliminate bugs and potential threats existing in the earlier code. The lack of updates to programs running within the site makes it much easier to take over from external users.

You can find out how often security patches are implemented by analyzing the information provided with subsequent software updates. Most updates go hand in hand with a blog post or note detailing each subsequent patch.

Additionally, information about the need to update your CMS usually appears on the main page of the administration panel. Note – updating older CMS versions (e.g. those that have not been updated for several months) may result in problems with the basic functionalities of the website. Before starting the update, it is worth taking care of backing up your website files. Archaic versions of CMS are good to update with the help of specialists – e.g. a software house which was responsible for the original appearance of the website. You should remember about the necessity to update the system on which the website is located when designing the website and include help with updating in the contract.

C. Plugins and Extensions
When discussing updates of popular CMSs, it is also worth paying attention to the elements that allow you to extend the capabilities of these programs, i.e. plug-ins, extensions and add-ons. Each of these programs offers a new function for our CMS, unfortunately – not always only the ones we care about. So how do you recognize plugins that will be safe? What to look for?

Before installing an add-on to our CMS, it is worth taking a look at its popularity and opinions, check the credibility of the company that issued it and make sure how often they are and what the updates are about.

It is a mistake to leave plugins without updating – it is thanks to them that bugs and security holes are removed that can be used to take over your Internet ownership.

D. SSL
The implementation of SSL is not only the whim of your SEO positioner or your ad specialist, but one of the ways to improve the security of data flowing through your website. SSL, or in fact TSL, guarantees the confidentiality of data transmission and server authentication. It is based on asymmetric encryption with a public key, the knowledge of which cannot decrypt the data. For this purpose, it is necessary to have a private key that is not shared externally. The length of the keys in the current versions of TSL is at least 128 bits.

E. Take care of a backup
Caution may result in another item on the list of monthly website maintenance costs, but in times of crisis it becomes priceless. Website security is not an area where you should save in the first place. In this case, forethought manifests itself by taking care of the backup. Backups stored in a safe place reduce the risk of data loss. Securing databases and placing them in a different space than the original files will enable business continuity, even in the event of a failure or losses caused by a break-in.

The backups will also be stored by the hosting on which the website is located, which is very useful in the event of technical problems with the website – restoring the state from two or three days ago is usually a matter of one phones. Unfortunately, leaving the security of your websites in the hands of third parties does not always work, as customers of one of the world’s hosting companies could already see in 2016.

F. Educate yourself and your colleagues
The security of a website depends on many factors. The impact of some of them can be reduced by educating everyone who works within them. Sometimes it is enough to refresh the basics related to online security – the rules of creating passwords, the need to use secure internet connections and log out after work is done, or suspicion of unusual-looking emails. A website is a sensitive place, the most sensitive of which is our ignorance. Caring for the security of the website and all resources necessary for our company does not require specialist knowledge or technical skills – in many cases it is enough to implement good practices.

SEO – the basis for advertising a furniture store

It is impossible to hide – nowadays, in many furniture stores you can find very similar or even the same goods at very similar prices. Even if you propose something unusual, it will be very difficult for you to break your offer among a huge number of products and sellers. How do customers find furniture stores? Often via Google. Sometimes they search on the basis of very general terms (eg “Los Angeles furniture store”), other times more precisely (eg “modern New York furniture”, “Boston-sized kitchen furniture” or even “eared armchair with a footrest”). Usually they click on the first few search results, rarely (only about 25% of the time) looking at their second page. Therefore, a high position in Google results is something every seller should strive for!

This is what website positioning is all about. It is a set of activities aimed at improving the visibility of the website on the Internet. Positioning is carried out on the basis of a well-defined list of keywords and a carefully developed strategy. These words should be skillfully placed in the content of the page, its meta tags and attributes. It is also worth making sure that links to it from other websites, preferably reputable and thematically related to it, are directed to it.

Keywords (phrases, queries) should be selected in a specific way. Although the company’s main goal may be to be in the first place in the search results for the phrase “New York furniture”, positioning your site only for this phrase will not bring you tangible results. Long tail keywords work much better, i.e. detailed, several-word queries similar to those mentioned above. They are much less searched, but at the same time much less competitive. This in turn means that it is easier to get to the top of the results. The positioning strategy for long tail phrases has one more benefit. They are entered in the search engine mainly by people determined to buy, including those looking for specific products. Therefore, if you can offer them a favorable offer, there is a high probability that they will take advantage of it.

It is best to hire specialists to conduct positioning. You can create a new position in the company or decide to work with an agency. It is worth remembering that the latter solution is usually much cheaper. However, it is important to carry out all activities systematically and thoughtfully – positioning is definitely not something that can be done “by the way”, especially in a serious company. How to make your website more visible? It is a combination of different types of activities. However, an important role here is played, among others, by content marketing, i.e. content marketing. The website of a furniture store is an ideal place to run a blog about interior design, trends, popular materials and their properties, arrangement styles and other related topics. It is quite easy to smuggle in many keywords in published articles, which affects the position of the page in the search results. One should only make sure that the website does not contain duplicate content, which will disqualify it in the race for good visibility on Google. In order for the advertising of a furniture store to be even more effective with this method, it is worth keeping your finger on the pulse when it comes to the latest trends and topics that interest customers. Thanks to a variety of online tools (including, for example, the free Google Trends service), you can check which topics and terms are most frequently searched for.

In addition, the very structure of the website is of great importance for positioning, so it should be constantly optimized, including in the field of code order, structure, appearance and content. You should also not forget about the exhaustive descriptions of categories and product descriptions in the online store (if any) and internal (between individual subpages of the website) and external linking.

SEO for a furniture store – why is it worth it?

Taking care of SEO should be a priority for every store and company that cares about a good image and attracting new customers. Positioning also plays an important role in advertising a furniture store. It is worth taking care of seriously mainly due to:
– the ability to reach customers looking for specific information and products,
– increasing brand recognition and prestige, which can be extremely important in the marketing of a furniture store,
– long-term effects – a well-positioned website helps to constantly acquire new customers,
– side effects in the form of a well-structured, optimized and user-friendly website and valuable content on the website and company blog.

Thanks to positioning, you will build a strong brand and reach your potential customers. It is now a primary marketing tool and a foundation for other activities that we will discuss below.

Google Ads – effective advertising of a furniture store on the Internet

Google Ads is another good solution for advertising a furniture store. The platform offers a number of paid promotion opportunities that are useful for both stationary and online activities. What tools can be used?

Google text ad (sponsored links)
Ads that appear just above or in between and look very similar to organic search results are sponsored links. Placing such a link in the search engine costs nothing in itself. However, you will pay for each redirection to the store’s website – i.e. for clicking the link. This is called Pay Per Click (PPC) settlement. The price of a single click varies greatly – it depends on the competitiveness of the keyword, i.e. how many people want to advertise within a given query, but also on e.g. your ad quality score. The advantage of a text ad is the possibility of obtaining immediate results comparable to those provided by careful positioning.

Product Listing Ads
Sometimes, ads for specific products along with a photo, name and price also appear in the search results. This is called Product Listing Ads (PLA). It is worth using them to promote specific goods from the offer. In this case, you also pay in the PPC settlement, and the customer redirected to the store often makes a purchase, which is why PLA campaigns can be very beneficial. In fact, it is currently the fastest growing advertising channel for online stores.

Graphic ad (display, banner)
When browsing various websites and websites, you often come across graphic ads, often related to your interests or previous Google queries? This is the banner campaign. Advertising of a furniture store conducted in this way may prove useful in the context of building brand recognition. Campaign settings allow you to refine the target audience of your content, which increases its effectiveness.

Remarketing
Remarketing is similar banners targeted at those who have already visited the store. Depending on the selected settings, they can show up to former customers or only to those who have not made a purchase. If you run an online store, you can use dynamic banners. Then, the recipients of the advertisements will be shown previously viewed products or other similar products (e.g. from the same category).

Google Ads in advertising for a furniture store – why is it worth it?

Google Ads is used by both novices and the greatest representatives of the industry – including those who managed to achieve the highest positions in search results. Why? Because it just pays off. In addition, advertising for a furniture store with Google is:
– several types of campaigns,
– immediate results,
– the ability to reach a well-defined target group and customers looking for specific products,
– favorable settlement model – Pay Per Click,
– the ability to analyze the effectiveness of the campaign thanks to statistics and conversion path tracking.

These types of campaigns can produce really good results. Condition? Consistent and skillful actions. Therefore, advertising for a furniture store via Google should be supervised by professionals.

Advertising of a furniture store via Facebook Ads

Facebook is a very important medium, but still remains underestimated by some companies. Your competition is definitely there, so it is definitely worth joining. Importantly, users often look there for information that is relevant to them. The company profile on the platform is a tool for communicating with customers and a determinant of its authenticity, so it is certainly not worth giving up.

Your own Facebook page can be used to publish news, present specific products and collect opinions or suggestions directly from customers. In addition, it enables paid advertising of a furniture store. You can use it to direct users directly to the store or to your fanpage, as well as gain new “fans”. There are many possibilities, also in terms of targeting. Thanks to this, promotional content can go exactly where you want.

Facebook Ads for a furniture store – why is it worth it?

Facebook Ads allows you to reach millions of potential customers. It is perfect for advertising a furniture store, as well as many other types of business, mainly due to:
– several campaign formats,
– affordable prices and no minimum budget for advertisers,
– the possibility of precise targeting, i.e. reaching a specific target group,
– various billing methods – e.g. for clicks or impressions,
– the possibility of creating the company’s image.

Facebook ads can be very effective, especially when done wisely. In addition, being on the platform will be useful for establishing and maintaining relationships with customers and increasing brand awareness.

In what order should the information be arranged? – is one of the most common questions about writing expert articles. There are many answers. Unfortunately, none of them will ever be the only right one. Because what we want to say affects how we arrange the content.

For example, the rule of the inverted pyramid (consisting of the fact that we start with the most important information and end with irrelevant details) will work in the news, but it is unlikely to be useful in the scientific text in which the most important conclusions are drawn at the end.

In the “Writing about knowledge” series I stick to the assumption that an expert article resembles a lesson. Therefore, knowledge should not only be clearly laid out, but also easier to remember. If so, it is good to know a rule governing memory that can affect both the structure of a good lesson and a successful expert article.

What effect on remembering takes place in a row

Almost 150 years ago, psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus began researching memory. He created over 2,000 meaningless syllables (such as RUL or HAL) and created lists of them, consisting of 7-36 elements. Then he memorized each list by heart and wrote down how many times he had to repeat the syllables to flawlessly recreate the whole.

He came to the conclusion that it is easier to remember the items beginning and ending the list than those inside.

For example, if the list contains 9 words, a person will remember on average 70% of the first three words, 40% of the three middle and 60% of the last three words.

But the order of reminding will be the reverse. Now, if someone would give you a list of vocabulary to teach, and then ask you to say or write down the words you recall, you would probably be the first to think of the words at the end of the list. It’s an effect of freshness. Then you recall the words that appeared at the beginning. This is a priority effect.

Why does the place in the row affect the ability to remember? There are many explanations.

We devote more attention to what is at the beginning, and therefore there is a greater chance that we will repeat this information and transfer it to long-term memory. However, the last words for a moment after reading the content remain in short-term memory and can be quickly extracted from there.

Please note that what is at the beginning and at the end is not remembered the same. The difference is in how you remember. The priority effect benefits from the benefits of long-term memory, while the effect of freshness – short-term.

Conclusions for writers?

What will appear at the beginning of the text has a chance to be saved permanently in the memory of the reader, while what at the end may briefly, but strongly, influence him. The effect of freshness appears just after reading the content and does not last long.

It’s good to start the expert text with the most difficult issues and end with an effective punch line or emotional appeal.

How to start with what is most important

Suppose you are writing a text about motivation. To emphasize the main thought, you can start e.g.

Motivation consists of two feelings. First of all: the belief that what you are going to do is useful. Second: faith that you can do the job.

Specialists from the Nielsen Norman Group, an organization that has been dealing with user experience for over 20 years, advise you to start the online text with a summary of the most important information.

Articles on nngroup.com are preceded by a short paragraph, announced by the word highlighted in red. An example summary reads, e.g .:

Users expect the “About Us” page to be transparent, authentic and understandable. They compare its content with the opinions of clients to create a full opinion about the company before proposing business cooperation or applying for a job.

Even if you fail to formulate the lid in this way, you still have the chance to take advantage of the priority effect. Why? Because the most important beginning for the reader is not the beginning.

The authors of one study divided the articles into 5 parts and checked in which of them the focus is on the most. In the case of articles considered later useful, the participants devoted the most attention not to the exact beginning of the text (0-20% of the content), but to the next part (20-40%).

Readers expect to find the most useful content here. To convince the reader to read, it is necessary to get to the point as soon as possible (but not immediately), and not just to tempt and encourage.

The beginning influences which pattern is arranged in the mind of the recipient, and therefore what he will expect. So, if the beginning of the article is not very substantial, the reader will be afraid that the rest will also not meet his expectations.

In the article you are reading now, I devoted the beginning of the text to research because, in my opinion, they are the most difficult part of it, and they are also supposed to convince the reader that the text is reliable.

The priority effect applies not only to the beginning of the entire text, but also to specific paragraphs or sentences.

In one study, each of the two groups received one sentence about Steve’s traits. The features were the same in both cases, but in a different order. How would you rate Steve if you found out he was “smart, urgent, critical, impulsive and jealous,” and how would you know that he was “jealous, impulsive, critical, urgent and smart”?

Does he seem more sympathetic after reading the first sentence, and more antipathetic after reading the second? Although the results of this study are more complex, one of the experiments proves the existence of a priority effect, resulting from the place of the word in the sentence.

How to manage the rest of the text

We’ve established that we start with what is most important and the most difficult. And what about the part that most often escapes memory, i.e. the middle of the text?

After what is important and difficult, go to what is simple and less new (in this article this is the part you are reading now). Then a cutscene may appear, e.g. a movie, an image.

Remember to always place captions under the pictures in the expert text. Many studies confirm that we read them several times more often than the main text. In addition, which is unique in online reading, we read them carefully, and some even start reading from the signatures.

As you approach the end of the article, you can take advantage of the freshness effect and move on to more difficult information (in this article it is a part about interlacing). It is best to close the expert text with a summary. I ended the article with bullets, but if you want to suggest something more original to the reader, you can, for example, draw a mind map.

Of course, you will not always be able to arrange the information in this way. Anyway, the division into easy and difficult is a subjective matter. An easy-to-follow passage does not have to be such in the reader’s eyes.

Fortunately, you don’t always have to act in line with the row effect. You can also … work around it. To do this, you need to know its limitations.

When the effect of a place in a row loses meaning

The priority effect is less pronounced when the individual elements are presented to the reader quickly. So it may not occur when you scan quickly. We also feel it less when the text is long.

Limited effect also has a freshness effect. If something distracts the reader’s attention right after reading it, this effect may not appear at all.

Unfortunately, the priority effect also makes it difficult to remember later messages. This is because we reject information that is not consistent with the information presented previously.

In other words, if the recipient accepts the first message, he will reject the next ones that contradict him. He finds it unreliable. So if you want to present different points of view, announce it early enough. So I did in this article:

There are many answers. Unfortunately, none of them will ever be the only right one. Because what we want to say affects how we arrange the content.

Above all, however, the effect of place in a row occurs most often when information is not varied. So, to get around it, you need to take care of diversity.

Why interleaving helps to understand

The creators of one study wanted to find out whether interlacing can affect the ability to better recognize the artist’s style. Study participants viewed the paintings of 12 more and less known artists. Half of the students watched the works gathered in blocks, i.e. for example 6 Braque landscapes, 6 Cross and so on.

The other half watched mixed landscapes, so one image of Braque, then one of Cross and others. Then, the subjects were to see other landscapes of the same artists and subordinate them to their names.

The results of the study were surprising. Well, the group that studied mixed works came out a lot better. How is this possible?

“Interleaving examples, skills or concepts helps us, it seems, not only to see the differences between them, but also to better capture each thing individually.” – Benedict Carey.

According to Carey, interlacing, thanks to the element of surprise, prepares the brain for the unknown. It is an adventure. The moment we see something unrelated to the rest, our brain begins to work harder to answer the question Where did it come from?

There is another reason why those who saw mixed images passed the test with a better result. Well, the test questions are usually mixed up. So if we recognize different types of tasks while learning, it will be easier for us to match the solution to them when they appear during the knowledge test. Interlacing teaches you to choose from various problems.

The meaning of interlacing is easier to refer to, let’s assume mathematics, but can this be the way to learn history? Of course! Instead of an outline of the city’s history, you can offer the reader a collection of secrets associated with it.

Let’s say you run a Facebook page dedicated to the history of French cinema. Your subsequent entries do not have to relate to chronologically arranged events. What’s more, you can mix trivia about actors with fragments of reviews or film riddles. The more content types you mix, the better.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the popularity of Facebook pages is precisely that they actually force the author to such interlacing.

How to use interleaving in an article

However, if you want to use the benefits of interlacing in the article, you must first of all provide diversity to the reader. Just like Neil Patel does. His article on how to optimize the link description could consist of text only.

And Patel is different. About once every 400 characters, an image appears in the article. The graphics are varied. These are diagrams, diagrams, charts, screenshots, fragments of infographics. In almost each of these paintings we see a trace of the author’s interference, and thus arrows and explanations.

To make the content even more attractive, you can go a step further and prepare a visual note.

If you place the movie more or less in the middle of the text, it will act as an interlude.

And if you do not plan to include images or movies in the text, because they simply do not match your content? Then you can interweave not so much types of content (e.g. text, image, film) as types of statements (e.g. story, commentary, example).

However, in order for this diversity not to overwhelm the reader, you need to prepare something for him …

Prepare a cream cake

A strange headline, right? But because it stands out, you will probably remember it better than the others. I do not mean dessert, but the most effective way of reading on the internet.

Well, internet readers have long discovered that scanning can be as beneficial as reading, although it costs less time and effort.

And it is not at all cynical, as it may seem. Well, reading on the internet usually serves to perform a task. One reads carefully online, not so much because of laziness but because of the need for efficiency. Recipients want to complete the task quickly and efficiently.

The internet reader is very busy. He wants to get an exhaustive answer and knows that he probably won’t find it in one place, so he opens several pages at once. Yours is one of them. The challenge for you is to facilitate this search.

And what does this have to do with the cream cake?

Well, the most effective way to read from the screen is not at all like the notorious letter F, but a cream cake. The headings are layers of cream, and the text between them – a cake.

The reader’s eye focuses on the title and subheadings. Sometimes the eyes glide over the text below, until you can locate the content you are looking for. From this moment the recipient reads carefully.

Yes, there is also careful reading on the internet. Recipients read carefully when they believe they are in the best place to get information.

To enable the reader to read in the style of cream cakes, you should write concise and encouraging headlines. They cannot announce too much or too little. The headlines should also stand out graphically to increase the functionality of the site.

Summary

– What is at the beginning of the text has a chance to be saved permanently in the memory of the reader.
– What is at the end may briefly, but have a stronger impact on it.
– The most important beginning of the text is not the very beginning, but the content within the first 20-40%.
– From the most difficult it is good to go to what is simple and less new, then serve the reader a break, then take up more difficult issues and end with a summary.
– To bypass the effect of space in a row, take care of diversity and use the interlacing principle.
– You will make it easier for the reader to complete the task if you enable him to read the cream-style cake.